Traffic and life on the road in Chennai

This is a discussion on Traffic and life on the road in Chennai within Street Experiences, part of the Buckle Up category; Whenever there is fairly moderate to heavy rain Usman road gets jammed very badly specifically in the direction towards Nungambakkam. ...

Not just Usman road, I think most of the roads. You just need to visit the OMR, after a heavy rain, and its time to pull out the canoes. And to add to it inconsiderate motorists!! Some of them are not even aware of the problem they cause by splashing water(+ sewage) on others, and happily zip through.

Not just Usman road, I think most of the roads. You just need to visit the OMR, after a heavy rain, and its time to pull out the canoes. And to add to it inconsiderate motorists!! Some of them are not even aware of the problem they cause by splashing water(+ sewage) on others, and happily zip through.

I have been avoiding OMR for that reason.
The PM is in Chennai tomorrow. Expect traffic holdups. Wish the itinerary was known can plan accordingly.

Whenever there is fairly moderate to heavy rain Usman road gets jammed very badly specifically in the direction towards Nungambakkam. Best to avoid it altogether.

Living in T.Nagar since childhood. Have never venture into Usman Road unless destination is there (still would be done with as many workarounds to avoid it). Its been that way even in the 80s, hasn't got any better over time either.

^^^ @Thad : thanks, just that the spell checkers have made me a bit more lazier than before. So these days its looking our for those alerts rather than proof reading, as we used to do in the earlier day!!

Any idea of the agitation at Sholinganallur today? Again caught in the traffic jam this morning. Why cant the political parties takes some quite spot for their agitations rather than causing inconvenience to public.

^^^ @Thad : thanks, just that the spell checkers have made me a bit more lazier than before. So these days its looking our for those alerts rather than proof reading, as we used to do in the earlier day!!

Any idea of the agitation at Sholinganallur today? Again caught in the traffic jam this morning. Why cant the political parties takes some quite spot for their agitations rather than causing inconvenience to public.

Raghu, todays agitation is "Closing of TASMAC Shops" by opponent party DMK. I just missed the pile up by few minutes around the signal junction.
After 1 hr when I looked at the road I could see at least 2-3 kms traffic all the way from SNR signal and going beyond CTS thoraipakkam...

So pathetic.. guys who came from Tidel and drove towards SNR or Siruseri were the worst affected.

Need to put a law to do all meetings and agitation outside the city limit.

^^^Not to mention that the public had to undergo all this ruckus, for something that none of the parties have an interest or will to enforce, given that TASMAC contributes 25% of the state's tax revenue (of the State's projected tax revenue of 96,083.14 crore, the projected revenue from TASMAC was expected to be 29,672 crore).

A big chunk that no Government can do without. Same story in most other states too.

If I recall correctly it (in all its avatars) has had only about 20 years of alcohol sales in the last 80 years.

I've seen wine shops all over Madras as a child in 80s. So its been there 30 years atleast, before that I don't know personally. Though I've read an article which had a newspaper clipping about bringing alchohol prohibition by DMK government that was dated in 70s. The same prohibition talk came up in 1996 state elections as well.

I've seen wine shops all over Madras as a child in 80s. So its been there 30 years atleast, before that I don't know personally.

Not 30 years; MGR relaxed prohibition in early eighties and reinstated it a few years later (87 or so) - part of the 20-odd years I counted. The move had received a fair bit of coverage in my home state (Kerala) too. Then I think it was relaxed only in 2002 or so.

Well, whatever be the compulsions, neighboring Kerala has decided it can do without this revenue.

TN atleast has 3/4th of the revenue coming from elsewhere. Without liquor revenue which forms the major part, KL would come to a standstill. So, it cannot do without this revenue. Even with no prohibition, the finances are pretty shaky.

And I don't think Kerala has done anything substantial on the prohibition front. The BEVCO (equivalent to TASMAC) shops are still there - with a plan to close 10% of those every year. But by the time the next year comes, it would be a new Govt and this plan would be chucked in the trash-bin.

What has been done is only to stop sales of hard-liquor in all bars except those in 5-star hotels. All the other bars (2-star, 3-star etc) have now become "Beer & Wine Parlours" selling beer - these are now dime a dozen and more common than tea-shops. So, while some excise revenue is lost due to not selling hard-liquor in bars, the overcrowded BEVCO shops still pull in max part of the revenue, with the beer-parlours getting the remaining action.

Quote:

Originally Posted by binand

Not 30 years; MGR relaxed prohibition in early eighties and reinstated it a few years later (87 or so) - part of the 20-odd years I counted. The move had received a fair bit of coverage in my home state (Kerala) too. Then I think it was relaxed only in 2002 or so.

While that is what Wiki says, I doubt that is correct. I don't know about how it was before the mid-eighties, but am sure that from 1988 till today, liquor has been available in TN without a break.
In between they banned arrack and later toddy too, but IMFL has been available all these years.